Around the Empire

First things first, if you haven't already done so sign up for the March Madness contest before the opening tip tomorrow.

National League East Preview (Complete Preview at My Opinion on Baseball)

Atlanta Braves – Last Year’s Record 79 – 83, 3rd in Division.
Strength: Infield hitting, the Braves infield hit 263 RBI’s last season.
Weakness: Pitching, the Braves Ace is an aging John Smoltz who had a 3.49 ERA last season. Behind him is Tim Hudson with an ERA of 4.86.
Keys to success: Braves need a third pitcher to have a solid starting rotation, offense needs to wake up and be a dominate force
What to watch for: Hudson leads the Braves with 19 wins and the Joneses
Red Flag: They no longer have the pitching of the Braves of the 90s
Projected Finish: 3rd 78-86

Where’s Junior? (Complete Story at My Opinion on NASCAR)

While Jimmie Johnson was winning his third race in a row in Las Vegas Dale Earnhardt Jr. was finishing his first Nextel Cup race in his third attempt.

"We're not happy about it, but we're keeping our heads up," Earnhardt said. "We've had some rough starts before and came back strong. We were 38th in the points after two races in 2003, and we came back to finish third.”

Sunday’s 11th place finish Sunday in Las Vegas moved Junior to 28th place from 40th after crashing at Daytona and blowing an engine in California. While the 11th place finish was a welcome relief for a team who hadn’t even finished yet it could have, and should have, been better.

In the Forum

Finally, we've got a little NASCAR talk

Doesn't matter that we're only in Spring Training it's Yankees/Red Sox